Towards an Agile Public Sector: Reinventing the Public Administration by Designing Human-Centred and Sustainable Organizational Models, HRM Practices and Work(places)

Recent years have brought many challenges (economic crisis, COVID-19, digital transformation) to organizations, their arrangements (workflows, teamwork, leadership, and culture) and human resources management (HRM). New digital tools such as big data, cloud, social media and artificial intelligence (AI) favored the introduction of new forms of working that revolutionized traditional work practices and respective organizations by redefining individual and organizational boundaries, and social bonds with the introduction of greater flexibility and autonomy in the choice of space, time and technological tools. These also embraced organizational transformation and digitalization processes that were previously neglected, especially in the public sector historically resistant to change. All these have prompted research on the growing intensive use of agile working (e.g., smart, remote, hybrid work) from different angles including organizational or job design, human-centeredness or ethics of technologies adopted, and their effects on the quality of work, employee well-being, organizational models and economies overall. Despite the efforts to define clear boundaries and characteristics, the literature shows an overlapping conceptualization of the different forms of working with contrasting effects these have on employees, HRM, organizations, and societies. For instance, a universally accepted definition of agile work is still missing and its conceptualization is often overlapping with hybrid, flexible-, tele-, and remote work. Thus, we are conducting a systematic literature review on sustainable organizational models, HRM practices and the underlying technologies employed in the public sector. This project is the first part of a broader project funded by Italian Ministry of University and Research. The review is currently in progress. Overall, we believe that the results of this review will have important practical, scholarly and policy implications, inform the next phases of our research, as well as build research agenda for future scholars.